Indications for Surgical Treatment in Chronic Pancreatitis

Abstract

Surgical treatment of chronic pancreatitis has centered on the technical aspects of the operation itself, and on the immediate hospital outcome. Little attention has been given to the indications for surgery or to the long-term benefits of patients who have had an operation. Indeed, little is known of the long-term outlook or natural history of chronic pancreatitis with the result that valid comparisons cannot be made between conservative and operative management. Further, the benefits of careful supervised medical management were discarded until Ammann et al. [1] brought to the attention of pancreatologists the natural resolution of symptoms with time, and the loss of exocrine and endocrine functions of the pancreas.